


Aftermath

by sunkelles



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bluepulse, I have a lot of feeeeelllliiiinnnngggssssssss, M/M, Maybe the Next One, an alternate ending to Episode 17, bart allen's big old crush on jaime reyes, roy harpers are assholes with anger issues but i love them, sadly there are no actual daisy chains in this fic, written more for the drama (TM) than because i think this is how it would go down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 05:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7788304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Did you come back in time to make daisy chains with the guy that destroys humanity?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> or: Roy Harpers have a thing about moles and Kid Flashes aren't about to let them accuse their love interests.
> 
> code names are used for effect, and i don't own the small snippets of dialog taken verbatim from the episode.

At this point, the bioship is the best thing that Bart has ever seen. He stumbles on, and a sense of great relief washes over him, even though the back of his head still hurts where not-Jaime hit him over the head and he's still drained and groggy and doesn't feel right at all. 

He should stumble further into the bioship, and let the rest of the stragglers work out whatever issues that they have. The kids from Star Labs saved them, which is probably funny in hindsight, but Bart can't help thinking about how sad it is. Jaime's friend Tye that he's never actually met is there and he wants to talk to him, but he's not sure how to do it. Tye didn't know about the superhero thing back when there was one, back when Jaime was Jaime. Bart doesn't work up the courage fast enough, and the kids from Star Labs teleport away before Nightwing even finishes his pitch for joining the Team. 

Nightwing sighs, and says, "I guess we've lost them." Arsenal looks vaguely disappointed, but not enough to stay on the subject. 

"Okay, look," he says, "we need to talk about the big blue elephant in the room."

"Elephant?" Bart asks. Whatever past slang this is, he's not familiar with it. Arsenal doesn't bother to clarify.

"Blue Beetle betrayed us," Arsenal growls. Nightwing nods, like he already knew that was coming.

"That wasn't Blue," Bart says, "he wouldn't do this."

"Oh sure," Arsenal says, voice dripping with sarcasm, "it was his evil clone." Bart glares.

"He's moded, Arsenal," he says. He'd think that someone would get the picture by now. That's the only explanation for Blue's betrayal, that he wasn't in control of himself. Which of course brings up a whole nother set of issues that Bart is totally not ready to think about at the moment. He can't think about the possibility of failing the world right now. He can't even deal with the thought that he's failed Jaime.

"Just because you have a crush the size of Texas on the guy-"

"What?" Bart demands. He feels his cheeks heat.

"Oh come on," Arsenal says, "don't pretend it's not true. You've got a thing for him and now you can't see what's right in front of you. He's a _traitor_ , Impulse."

"You shut up about him," Bart says, which probably isn't the best way to put the "crush" rumor on mode, but he's so pissed he doesn't care. Jaime deserves better than this.

"Drop it, Arsenal," Nightwing says, sending the original Speedy a scathing look.

"Weren't you the one that said he betrayed mankind?" Arsenal says, sending Bart a confused and disdainful look, "did you come back in time to make daisy chains with the guy that destroys humanity?"

"I came back to kill him," Bart replies before he can take his mouth off mode. He clamps it down, but the words have already been said. They call him Impulse for a reason. Arsenal doesn't actually look surprised by this.

"So he was your _mark_ and _then_ you fell in love with him?" Arsenal says with a laugh, "that's just sad, isn't it?" Arsenal would have been right, if Bart were able to think of them as the same person. But he just can't- he can't reconcile who Jaime is- was- with what the Blue Beetle becomes.

 _Jaime_ is the guy who made him watch Star Wars so he'd get all the cultural references. He's the guy that plays video games with him and talks about his fears and he gives his little sister piggyback rides even though it hurts his back and he complains about doing the dishes but he does them anyway. He's the guy that keeps a rosary in his pocket even though he's only kind of Catholic and he thinks Bart's weird but he still lets him come over and he elbows him playfully and wraps an arm around him and calls him amigo and ese and hermano and he wants to be a doctor and he told Black Canary he was going to turn against them because he was so afraid that he would and- and-

 _Jaime_  would never betray the Earth. Bart knows this deep in his gut. Jaime's one of the best things on it.

"Excuse me for not thinking the worst of him," Bart says, throat thick with guilt and anger.

"Your judgement's clouded," Arsenal says, "I doubt if anyone else on this Team would vouch for him." And Bart sees red, feels anger coursing through him. How  _dare_ he say that? Bart has to hold himself back to keep from dashing forward and ripping that smug smile right off of Arsenal's face-

"Impulse," Nightwing says evenly, "you're vibrating." Bart looks down, and notices that he's see-through. He's so angry that his molecules are vibrating at the speed of light. He doesn't know if he should think that's crash or not.

"Please," Nightwing says, "calm down." Bart takes a deep breath, and wills his body to slow down. Then he watches himself rematerialize.

"You both need to calm down," Nightwing says. They hear footsteps in the distance, and Bart turns around. Bumblebee stands in corridor, looking like a kid who walked in on her parents having a fight.

"Bumblebee, could you weigh in on this?" Nightwing asks, looking to her desperately. Bumblebee doesn't look thrilled to have gotten dragged into this, but she replies anyways.

"Look," Bumblebee says, "I dunno if Blue's on "mode" or whatever, but I do know Arsenal here almost got us all killed." Arsenal looks ready to murder her.

"I saved your life," he growls. Bumble Bee glares at him, daring him to say more. 

"What happened?" Nightwing demands.

"Last thing I remember is him blowing an airlock without warning," she says, "nearly got us all killed and absolutely guaranteed our captured."

"Hey, after eight years on ice there was no way I was getting grabbed again," he says, "and in case you hadn't noticed, my escape resulted in you being free now to stand there and complain!"

"You're right, thank you," Nightwing says, and then he pauses, "But when we get back, you're off the Team."

"What do you mean, off the Team?" Arsenal demands.

"You keep endangering the lives of your teammates," he says, "and until you learn how to be a team player, there's no place for you on this Team."

"Fine," Arsenal growls, "I don't need your Team. It's full of traitors and weaklings anyway." He storms off to a different part of the ship, and Bumblebee mutters something under her breath as she stalks off to a different corner of the ship. Bart is left at the edge, alone except for Nightwing.

"I'm sorry about Blue," Nightwing says softly. He sounds guilty, like he's holding himself personally responsible. Bart finds that a little funny because Bart knows that he's the one to blame. His mission was to save the world, and he couldn't even save Jaime Reyes.

"Yeah," Bart says, "I am too."

**Author's Note:**

> i laughed after writing the evil clone line because i remembered that's not just a cliche, bart actually HAS an evil clone.


End file.
